Lori Stanley Roeleveld's Blog, page 18

Fall on Your Knees, O Hear the Angel Voices

I love my children and grandchildren with a white-hot searing love that could incinerate the sun if anyone tried to harm them.

To say I’m protective of them is to say that Meryl Streep is well-known, that Thor can manage a hammer, or that Whitney Houston could carry a tune. As mild-mannered as Clark Kent when my children are fine, I’m like Superman on steroids when they’re threatened on any level.

I do believe in the benefits of struggle, of hard work, and of weathering the natural hard times that come along in life. I’m not overprotective in that bubble-wrap my kiddos sort of fashion. Ask them. When they would complain that something, they faced was unfair, I’d reply, “Good. Life is unfair and it’s my job to prepare you for it.”

But if I could, I would take all of life’s little cruelties, all the senseless pain, all the meanness and torment that might come in their direction on myself. I want for them a world before Adam and Eve chose to bite.

As much as I love all of you, if I were to send one of my children or grandchildren into harm’s way to protect you, there would have to be a) a truly compelling reason and b) a seriously dangerous threat.

Which is all to explain why, at this season of love, peace, and giving, I’m meditating on the reality of God’s wrath, of evil in the world, and of the sacrifice delivered here in the most vulnerable of all packages, a newborn child.

This week, our small-town bid farewell for now to a young man heading off to boot camp. It amazes me the strength of parents who, out of love for freedom and for their fellow human beings, commit their sons and daughters to place themselves in harm’s way on our behalf. Their sense of duty, love of God and country, and their understanding that there is serious evil in the world that must be guarded against is admirable.

How can anyone imagine that God, our Heavenly Father, would send His only Son into a world that would try to destroy Him from His birth without a compelling reason against a seriously dangerous threat?

In the ultimate display of God’s security in His own power and plan, He sent His Son into the world as a newborn baby. That is the most epic version of appearing to bring a knife to a gunfight in the history of the world. And yet, it testifies to the faith God had in His own ability to enter the belly of the beast and emerge without even a hint of smoke on His robes.

God’s immeasurable love for humanity was His compelling reason. He loves us with a white-hot searing never-ending lay-down-my-life-for-you kind of love. It is a love that deserves attention, admiration, and imitation.

And Jesus did what He came to do. He lived a sinless life – fully human, fully God – and then laid down His life, yielding to death on the cross – after being betrayed, abandoned, falsely accused, beaten, mocked, scorned, and publicly rejected by those He came to save.

Many people minimize this sacrifice. As if it was simply a large-scale object lesson for us to be willing to put others before ourselves. They forget that for a loving parent to be willing to sacrifice their child for another there must be, not only a compelling reason, but also a seriously dangerous threat.

The threat comes from within each of us. Our own sin puts us at risk of receiving God’s holy wrath.

You see, those who choose evil in this life, will not have the power to hold all of us ransom for eternity. There will come a time when God’s holy wrath is poured out and those who choose to follow their own doings, who refuse to acknowledge Jesus as Lord, will come to face judgement and destruction.

If it weren’t for Jesus, that would be all of us. We would all face certain doom. No matter to what degree our sin has been made manifest, if we choose to be our own saviors, we will fail in our mission.

The good news of great joy for all people the angels announced to the shepherds was that this infant Jesus was born to be the true Savior. He lived here in constant threat, suffered, and died so that any who choose to acknowledge Him as Savior will be protected from the final outpouring of God’s wrath. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” John 3:36

The wrath that will put an eternal end to evil. The wrath that will reign justice down from on High. The wrath that will no longer withhold the giant dose of “I just want to get what I deserve.” The coming wrath of our Holy and Righteous Father.

There was a danger Jesus was sent to save us from – and He accomplished His mission – and was raised

from the dead into an everlasting resurrection into which we can follow Him, freely, a gift from our loving Father God.

God is no tyrant, no fool, no abusive Father. He would not send His Son into the path of the enemy without a compelling reason (His love for all humanity) and a truly dangerous threat (that we would cling to our own sin and enter eternity separated from a loving God.)

We don’t live in a village dictated by a Hallmark movie script. We live on a planet engaged in a war for souls and it’s brutal on its best days. Even Christmas.

But Jesus brought true life and light into the world at His birth, through His death, and into His resurrection. It is in the Spirit of Christmas I encourage you to meditate on the coming wrath – all the better understand the true worth of every soul and to rejoice with the angels that the Savior has indeed come.

If there is a tinge of sadness in our hearts at Christmas, it is for those who continue to reject the One who came to save and our knowledge that kingdom has yet to come in many, many hearts.

O Holy Night.

Why meditate on God's wrath during this season of joy? Because it's integral to understanding O Holy Night. https://t.co/Fjb2ohWfXp #OHolyNight #Christmas

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) December 18, 2019

Yes, Virginia, some people find Christmas irritating

Do you know an Ebenezer Scrooge? They’re not just fictional characters. Ebenezers walk among us every day.

Yes, Virginia, some people find Christmas irritating, aggravating, and even loathsome. In the movies, these people end up embracing the joy of the season, melting at the special gesture of a loved one, a meaningful gift, or a carol sung by a pure-hearted child.

In real life, Ebenezers usually maintain their Grinch-like posture, embrace their inner Scrooge, and suck the joy of the season from those around them, as well. This, loved ones, is as traditional as a crèche, for the first “Bah humbug!” was muttered long ago in a language that is still spoken by descendants of the original Christmas rebel.

You see, not everyone greets the coming of a new king with open arms. Especially not the current king sitting precariously on the throne, imagining the usurper has arrived to upstage him.

When wisemen traveled from the east in search of the new king predicted by the arrangement of the constellations, they thoughtfully checked in with the sitting king of the land, King Herod. Naively thinking he would share their joy and wonder, they informed him that a new king had been born and they had traveled far to worship at his feet.

Herod, deft at deception and political prowess, played along with the magi, pretending to agree with their delight at the newcomer who threatened his throne.

“Please, do let me know when you find him!” Herod asks them, his voice a caramel river of charm. “I will follow to where you are and adore the young lad myself. I have something special I would like him to have.”

Yeah, like a knife to the chest.

The magi, being wise men, did smarten up and after they found Jesus, they kept mum about the precise address of his crib and headed home by an alternate route they worked out on an ancient version of MapQuest.

The frustrated king, reigning in a time long before GPS, felt he had no other choice but to order a mass extermination of all male children under the age of two. That’s right. This is not a heartwarming story.

This is chubby baby boys warm and swaddled at their mothers’ breasts one moment – sliced in two by the glinting edges of Roman swords and daggers the next. Mothers and fathers left reeling and confused, kneeling and weeping in the cobbled streets of Jerusalem, without recourse under the reign of a merciless tyrant worried that an infant might steal some of his glory.

Now, while King Herod was an early adopter of the “Bah Humbug!” approach to Christmas, he was not the originator. We must travel much farther back in time to locate that old snake.

Isaiah 14:12-15 says: “How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn!

You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart,

‘I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,  to the depths of the pit.”

There was once a created being who thought he could be God. He was ambitious for the throne. He was wise, clever, beautiful and talented, but he aspired to a height that belongs to only One.

When he was cast out of heaven for his rebellion, along with those who supported him, he raged against the machine. When the Father created a new race, humanity, the evil one immediately plotted to spoil them and seat himself on the throne of their hearts. He gloried in himself when his original deception worked, and they were cast out of paradise.

Imagine his anger, then, when the Father set into motion a plan to redeem humanity!

Where was the plan for his redemption? He has been condemned. But now, this puny race, this people so easily deceived and infected with the blood of rebellion, now these humans are to be redeemed with the perfect blood of the Only Son of the Father!??

When this realization set in, that is when the original “Bah Humbug!” echoed through the cosmos as Satan spit and cursed and railed against the audacity of grace bestowed upon undeserving humans.

The evil one sees the precious, inestimable value of redemption bestowed through faith in Jesus Christ – why don’t we?

And still, there are those who would rather sit upon the throne of their own measly lives and reign in the moment, then to allow this true king to take His seat and submit to His rule in their lives and live forever.

One day, we will hear the last “Bah humbug!” Until then, there will be suffering, torment, and more bloodshed from more innocents. Those who refuse to choose Jesus wish to snuff the lights that shine from within those who do so their deeds can linger longer in the darkness.

The final “Bah humbug!” will not be a cry of triumph but a pitiful gasp as the originator finally answers for the spilled blood of those babies and the babies who came after them whose innocence was rent in two by men who were neither wise nor seeking anything other than their own glory.

King Herod lives on and his heart will not melt at the pure song of a child. Only Jesus and the way of the cross has the power to transform Herod and Scrooge.

Evil clings to this world and it will have its way in many dark places – even on Christmas day. But it will not have its way forever, loved ones.

Remember, in this darkest winter season, we do not display Christmas lights, we ARE Christmas lights. Let your light shine from this season into the next until He comes again!

Yes, Virginia, Some people find Christmas irritating https://t.co/iFcBIGkDbX #ChristmasSpirit #Herod

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) December 10, 2019

Whipping Up Something New – Advent in a Divided Kingdom

In preparing for major events, most of us clean house. God is no different.

Do you remember Jesus cleansing the temple?

When we clean, there is a sorting out. What have we accumulated that is unnecessary? What is unlovely and should be discarded? What has entered that isn’t in line with our values or that has overstayed its usefulness? What shall we hide when guests arrive?

Cleaning isn’t a delicate process and sometimes we meet resistance from those who don’t see their offensive items with the same eye we do. But we know that to create the comfort and rest everyone desires when the family gathers, or to create space for a new happening or to usher in a new year, there is an initial purge.

In trying to understand our times, I’ve immersed myself in the divided kingdom of ancient Israel and Judah.

They were a family, a nation, a people split in two. There was ongoing disagreement over what or who might be worshiped, what should comprise right worship, and what God’s Word actually says. There was a continual testing of the Word of God, a relentless temptation to integrate strange practices into the life of those who follow God, persistent power grabs and shifting alliances, threats from outside, and tension within.

But in studying the smaller kingdom, Judah, wherein resided Jerusalem, we’ll discover a pattern that restoration and peace follow a purge. And while biblical writers summarize each purge with only a verse or two, they could only have been disruptive, divisive, and discomfiting in their execution.

Like Jesus in John 2:13-22, cleansing the temple.

The temple was the center of daily life for the Jews. As Jesus approaches, we feel the crush of people, the heat of the day, and the dust on our feet. As Jesus expresses His righteous anger, we hear merchants yelling, lambs bleating, disciples gasping. We smell the dung and the sweat. We feel the panic as doves fly, livestock scatter, and money-changers dive for their coin.

But he has our rapt attention, this whip-wielding rabbi authoring the uproar. We barely breathe as we encounter this demonstration of holy zeal. This rabbi who takes the holiness of God so seriously. This Son who walks with authority, certainty, and power.

And we remember, alongside the Jews well-acquainted with their own history, that a purge of what is wrong in God’s house always precedes a reformation. Prepare ye the way isn’t a Broadway solo, it’s a soul-thrashing, pew-disturbing, dust-up with truth that gets us ready for the new thing God is about.

But Jesus, isn’t just referencing history, He’s making it, by stepping into His role as Messiah.

We can become so distracted by this glimpse of Jesus’ outrage, we miss the message in the emotion. We’re not watching the Messiah force sinners into God’s house, but instead, He’s forcing those who are abusing it, out.

He is fulfilling the prophecy of Malachi 3:1-4 “‘Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.’”

The Jesus we follow, the One we must reflect with our lives, is a refiner’s fire and a fuller’s soap. Cleansing and refining are seldom pleasant, always necessary, and seriously hard to reflect in practical ways – never without causing discomfort.

I will argue that this isn’t the image of Jesus we should pack away during Christmas. This is precisely the story we should tell at Advent because it is a necessary, albeit unsettling truth about our God – one that many seekers are longing to find.

If we resent and recoil at injustice, if we are turned off by hypocrisy, if we reject a spirituality that tolerates greed and corruption then we resonate with Jesus in this precise moment.

To hide this Jesus behind a “tame God” or “infant Messiah” filter is to risk misrepresenting Him to those who are seeking a God who loves justice, integrity, and a religious practice that cares for the oppressed – those who are seeking Jesus.

I’m not normally your table-overturning kind of gal. I like a good sit-down-sermon-on-the-mount-cared-for-sparrows-and-turned-cheeks approach to life any day. But if I’m following Jesus (and I am), then I must also know that God isn’t void of anger, He’s just slow to it, largely out of mercy for us.

Righteous anger is protective love in action. We don’t serve an inactive, disaffected God who is passive in the face of evil. We serve a God of justice, righteousness, and power restrained and channeled by wisdom and mercy.

Jesus was patient with sinners who knew they were sinners. He reserved His displayed anger for the self-righteous and those who were assigned to represent Him but were not.

It’s not that sinners who refuse to acknowledge Christ won’t encounter His anger one day, but now is not the time. The point of this temple cleansing is expressed best in 1 Peter 4:17, “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”

This Advent, let’s worry less about deep-cleaning our homes and focus more on presenting ourselves to God for the cleansing of our lives and our churches of all that doesn’t represent Him and all that only represents Him in part.

Whipping up something new – Advent in a Divided Kingdom https://t.co/EnGSEfyOV2 #Jesus #Advent #holidaycleaning

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) December 3, 2019

Drop Weight During the Holidays – Five Surprisingly Effective Strategies

Want to feel lighter during the holidays and greet the new year weighed down by less? Predictably, I believe the Bible holds the key.

Here are five surprisingly effective strategies for dropping weight during the holidays.

#1: Drop the weight of grumbling and dissatisfaction. Nothing weighs a person or a celebration down like the heavy wet blanket of complaint. Paul commands us in Philippians 2:14-15 “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.”

Imagine a holiday season where no one complains about the crowds, commercialism, or inconvenience. Imagine a winter arriving without the flurry of whining complaints. Imagine the people of God welcoming each season for what it has to offer and spreading gratitude that we have people to love, food to share, and the freedom with which to enjoy it. Imagine the festive aroma of words filled with grace.

#2: Drop the weight of anger. There’s a lot wrong on our planet. There’s a lot wrong in our communities, churches, homes, and even our own hearts. Opportunities for anger abound and we can find justification with little effort. But if the Creator of the Universe could sit to eat with sinners without raining fire down on their heads, then we can probably lighten up for a meal or two ourselves. Speak truth, by all means, but drop the anger at the door of your prayer closet.

Paul reminded the Colossians that they once carried anger as a necessary accessory, but now, they have a new calling. “In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.” Colossians 3:7-8. I love that he tells them to “put them all away.” A freeing thought. Makes a heart feel lighter at the thought, doesn’t it?

#3: Release the weight of false guilt. Jesus isn’t laying holiday burdens on your shoulders. Don’t confuse Hallmark with holy orders. Holidays sometimes arrive when we’re grieving, facing a dire diagnosis, reeling from a broken relationship, or swimming in financial problems. Not having the holiday spirit is NOT a sin. Jesus whispers truth to our hearts that isn’t dependent on the calendar. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is key and He is able to navigate complex emotional terrain.

Satan is the accuser of the brothers (Revelation 12:10). When we hear repeated accusations against us, even in our own minds, from which there seems no escape, it’s likely he’s behind it. The conviction of the Holy Spirit is clear, leads us to repentance, confession, and freedom. When false guilt plagues us, reading Romans 8 will remind us of the truth. If troubling times, hardship, or loss are your lot through the holidays, give them their due. Find, don’t force joy. Surround yourself with others who can live in an authentic space and explore a season of celebration against a backdrop of genuine human experience.

#4: Drop the weight of pride. Who needs it? Seriously, we all believe we do, but it only erects barriers to relationships and God’s redemptive work in and through us. Forget what your hair looks like, forget what your home looks like. Worry not about your humble offerings and practice hospitality as a sacrifice, especially when it is.

And isn’t it pride that prevents us from sharing our faith, speaking our minds, or from relinquishing ground in a quarrel? We worry that others will misunderstand us, think us provincial or backward, assume we’re racist, sexist, and phobic, or that they’ll laugh at our presentation of the gospel. Why shouldn’t we be misunderstood, rejected, scoffed at, and walked away from – they did all this and more to Jesus. Humility is a lighter cloak and is sufficient, even in a cold season. Celebrate Christ by being like Him.

#5: Release the hidden weight of doubt and step into the confident certainty of our faith. We worship the Creator God who entered history in the form of His Son Jesus Christ. Our faith is defendable, historical, rational, and true. We serve the only God who raised from the dead. Jesus is the only name by which anyone can be saved.

And so, we express humble, but certain gratitude to the Living God, Jehovah Jireh, our Provider and we celebrate the incarnate Christ who entered history destined to die on the cross for our sins. Popular opinion and shifting cultural mores cannot alter eternal truth.

Did you think I was talking about extra pounds? Trust me, if you release dissatisfaction, grumbling, anger, false guilt, pride, and doubt, you’ll find fewer opportunities for stress eating. You’ll likely also breath easier, sleep deeper, and find yourself with greater energy for cooking healthy food, walking, and enjoying your relationships. That all adds up to a lighter life in every aspect.

Are you willing to drop unnecessary weight during the holidays, greeting the New Year with a lighter view? Nothing is impossible with God, my friends.

Imagine your life with Christ as a balloon ride and each of these weights as sandbag holding you down from the real adventure. Now, severe those ties. Catch the fire. Drop the weight and rise.

Drop Weight During the Holidays – 5 Surprisingly Effective Strategies https://t.co/sH5kcATB24 #holidays #weightlosstransformation

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) November 13, 2019

When We’re Repaid Evil for Good

It has never been easy for God’s people to set about to build.

Building requires vision. Envisioning something that isn’t there but needs to be. Holding onto a vision that others may not see. Clinging to a vision when dark forces try to snuff out the light that illuminated the original dream.

Building is never easy for a man or woman of God whether it’s building a life, a family, a home, a community, a ministry, a church, relationships, bridges, or kingdoms. It’s always a battle.

Which surprises us, even though it’s a pattern as predictable as the seasons, that God’s people must work and fight against darkness and death to reach life and light.

We know this from the womb as we fight our way out even as our mother labors.

Entering every promise land, even land gifted to us by our loving Father, requires sweat and effort and opposition and endurance before we may rest in the possession of it.

And didn’t our Lord labor and sweat and suffer and bleed as He fought through the cross and death to possess our salvation?

It’s never been more true that we can rest when we’re dead. Perhaps the initial silence in heaven is just the long well-earned nap many of God’s people deserve.

There is always a battle. Don’t ask me why. These days, I have very few answers.

But as I face opposition of my own, I can testify to how unsatisfying answers are when a soul is faced with true suffering. Suffering souls feed on the hope of Christ alone.

There’s nothing romantic about building.

Plans and visions may carry an air of romance, but building is nuts and bolts, blisters and thorns. Its measuring twice and cutting once. It’s miscalculating and starting again. It’s two steps forward, four steps back. It’s back-ache, heartache, headache, handshake, earthquake real life serious as a sawblade early to bed early to rise work.

And there is always opposition requiring that we work with one hand, fight with the other.

Ask Noah who spent a century sawing and hammering in a land that had never seen rain to craft a boat designed to save the people from something they never felt threatened by.

The laughter of his neighbors ringing in his ears when he collapsed into sleep at night. Did the neighborhood youth ever undo his work from the day before as he slept? Did his wife and sons ever weary of being laughingstocks? Did people make up falsehoods about him as they marveled at his madness? Did he ever beat the dusty earth in frustration and wonder when God would send the rain?

Ask Nehemiah. He only loved His people and found his mind filled with a vision to rebuild the wall of his city. Blessed with the king’s favor by God’s providence and rich with supplies, he spoke with the people who had a mind to work.

And yet immediately, there were scoffers who jeered and despised. Hard enough to rally a stubborn people around a united cause but then there was laughter and lies. Enemies appeared like hammered thumbnails and threatened to cripple the work. Rumors, plots, threats, precious effort spent on defense, diverted from the work, but still the work. Build with one hand, fight with the other.

It is our way, we who worship this invisible God who insists that His children never have it easy because He is building something in us and with us and through us as we build our kingdoms both temporary and eternal and He wants us to become the strongest material, titanium souls gifted with grace but battered and emboldened through the building.

So when the suffering comes, do not be surprised.

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” 1 Peter 4:12-13

When those you love and spend your heart to serve with willing sacrifice tear you apart, speak of you in lies, and close the door in your face, leaving you suddenly outside the walls you designed for their protection, remember this has been the way of all God’s children who sought to build.

And yet, we must continue to be builders. We are kingdom warriors speaking truth in a world of deceit, lighting the way in a long hallway of lies, laying down our lives as living stones to form the eternal church of Christ, and we can be no other.

Their lies, rejection, hatred, opposition, and violence cannot make us like them. We are like Christ and we will love through the pain and embrace our lives as eternal so the part we spend here, even marked with suffering, will be only a story we one day tell when we are home.

It has never been easy for God’s people to set about to build, but we are not like him who only came to destroy. We are our Father’s children – eternity builders.

We will weather the opposition together, knowing one day that the laughter of our homecoming will drown out their jeers forever.

When We're Repaid Evil for Goodhttps://t.co/dU7WpJtJpO #Jesus #leadership #kingdombuilding

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) November 6, 2019

The Truth – It’s Complicated

It was an unpleasant call, but it could have been worse.

A friend informed me that someone was posting falsehoods about me on a social media site. Truly unpleasant. As I read the lies, though, it occurred to me what would have been worse is if these tales were true. As dreadful as it is to confront deceptive words told to hurt me, what I dread more is facing truths about how I’ve fallen short of the call on my life.

Of course, Christ has me (and you) covered on all fronts. When others lie about us, He is our defender. When we must face the truth of our guilt, He provides grace to bear up, strength to repent, and power to transform.

Jesus invented the wholistic approach to life change. It involves equal parts love and truth.

I remember chatting with a parent whose actions had been reported to the child abuse hotlines. He ranted on about the outrage of the report, how uncomfortable it had been to sit with a state investigator, and how embarrassing it was to have to work with me. When he wound himself down a bit, I asked if he minded a question.

“Okay,” he responded with a cautious scowl.

“Was the report true?”

He nodded. “Yeah, it was true, but . . .” He stopped as I help up my hand.

“Do you love your children?”

“Of course, I love my children!”

“Are they safer now than they were prior to the report being made to the hotline?”

“Well, now I guess, but I still don’t like the process.”

“No, but the process made people you love safer. That’s a positive outcome of facing a hard truth, isn’t it?”

We seldom like the process of hearing or facing uncomfortable truths. I don’t like it. I hate the internal cringe, the stomach squirm, the spiritual wince when I come to understand the truth of my own wrongdoing, wrong thinking, or wrong motives. I am never more thankful for the cross than I am in those moments.

Sadly, if The Modern Western Church was friends with Truth on Facebook, our relationship status would be listed as “It’s Complicated.”

Admit it. We’re head-over-heels about the love of Jesus but the truth of Jesus is something we often hide from strangers like that weird uncle we don’t introduce to our boyfriend until we’re sure he’s all in. Love we lavish on passers-by, on enemies, on coworkers and neighbors. We fling love around with abandon. We flaunt love.

But, the love of Jesus is more than an overture to a deeper relationship. We can’t dissect Jesus, introducing Him a piece at a time to skeptics. Dissection is for dead things and Jesus is alive. We don’t woo them into a false sense of comfort before springing truth on them because that would be, well, unloving. To treat love like an overture is to sell love short. To delay presenting truth is to produce a mangled version of love, one that isn’t really love but a back-alley knock off.

If our lives are worship as Paul indicates in Romans 12:1 – “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” – then we must live them in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24). Jesus spoke these words to a woman made uncomfortable by the truth He knew about her and spoke to her. He wasn’t afraid of scaring her off because the only way He wanted to be in relationship with her was if she embraced the truth.

Jesus never divorced love from truth. He wouldn’t even tolerate a trial separation. When the rich young ruler asked Jesus what he must do to be saved, Mark writes, “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” Mark 10:21-22 ESV

Jesus loved him but He told him the straight-up truth.

The gospel isn’t something we present in stages: Phase 1: Smile and hold your arms wide open. Welcome the target inside. Present them with coffee and friendship and the love of God.  Phase 2: Spring the whole truth on them and hope they stick around for dessert in the fellowship hall.

If we’ve embraced the truth – the whole truth – and found salvation in Christ. If we’ve experienced God’s rich love and transforming truth in our own lives. Well, don’t you know there’s nothing particularly special about us? We’re no smarter or braver or truer or “readier” for the gospel than the people we encounter every day, and yet we stumbled into salvation through Christ.

Why are we withholding truth from others and calling it love? It’s not. It’s cowardice. And they don’t need a gutless gospel. They need the full-strength loving truth of Jesus – nothing more and certainly nothing less.

The first followers weren’t judgmental or condemning when they reported to everyone what they had seen and heard. Others were free to determine for themselves how they responded. Some, walked into relationship with Jesus. Others walked away.

At least the first followers presented them with all the information they needed to make an informed choice. Are we affording this generation the same opportunity? If not, how can we even pretend to love them?

The Truth – It's Complicated – https://t.co/zuPerGqc2D why do we withhold the truth and call it love? #Jesus #truth

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) October 31, 2019

Whatever You Do, Don’t Miss This One Thing

Sometimes I’m really a downer, I know.

I felt it myself recently when I read a Facebook advertisement by a well-meaning, sparkly Christian personality. She was advertising workshops to help women discover God’s wonderful unique plan for each of them.

I get it. I’m not opposed to this concept. If you attend her workshop, I’m confident you’ll be blessed, and God will work through it and through you. I want God’s wonderful plan for me. I do believe God wants us freed to be our individual unique selves, the ideas of us He had in His mind at our conception.

But, here’s the downer part: I pictured Betsie ten Boom signing up for this woman’s seminar and I worried that our cultural perspective is skewed.

Are we so focused on self-actualization and personal fulfillment that we set ourselves up to miss God’s perspective on what His plan may actually be for our lives this side of glory?

I’ll bet Betsie ten Boom had dreams.

I’ll bet she had heart desires, talents, gifts, hidden skills, yearnings of the soul, and she clearly pursued God. Betsie was Christ-like,

heroic, daring, and brave when she and her sister, Corrie, risked everything to hide Jews from the Nazis. I’m sure she made every dangerous choice prayerfully trusting God all the way.

But as it turns out, following Jesus led Betsie through Ravensbruck concentration camp in Nazi Germany.

She continued to follow Him even there. Betsie testified to others that Jesus was present with them in the camps, and she received visions of the work she and her sister would do once they were freed, but Corrie pursued those visions alone because Betsie died in Ravensbruck.

She was freed but not to life on this side of glory. This was God’s wonderful plan for Betsie’s life.

And one day, we will all clearly see the magnificence and wonder of it but there is no romanticizing a death surrounded by cruelty, mistreatment, and bondage in a flea-infested concentration camp far from comfort and loved ones.

If Betsie had been pursuing her best life “now”, she might have missed the true object of her life’s pursuit – Jesus Christ.

In following her Savior, she found life that transcended even a miserable death beneath the boot of evil. And as that boot descended onto her throat, she cried out her testimony for Jesus Christ and we can still hear her voice today.

Revelation 12:11 ESV reads, “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” Where is the seminar for that calling? Where is the workshop where we learn to die to all we hoped and dreamed as we follow Jesus into the deepest pit so we can call out that His light shines even there?

Because, loved ones, if you have found Jesus, you have found everything. Even if following Him has led you to broken people and places. Even if following Him has uncovered the brokenness in you. Even if your dreams elude you – if Jesus hasn’t, then you are living a life that leads to more life, eternal life, not death.

I believe it’s okay to pursue our unique callings, but our primary pursuit should always be Jesus. And we need to be careful that we aren’t so busy seeking our wonderful, best life that we forget to serve Him and those around us in the moment in which we find ourselves now.

Betsie ten Boom served her fellow prisoners and testified to the presence of Jesus Christ in the bowels of the Nazi killing machine – that’s a wonderful life – the likes of which I pray I’m spared, but it brings me needed perspective in this modern age of personal glory.

When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were about to be thrown in the fiery furnace for refusing to bow down to false gods, they made this proclamation:

“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:17-18

Even if I don’t find my wonderful personal calling, even if I die in a concentration camp, even if I’m thrown into a fire, there is only One God, and this God IS life.

So if it’s life we want – it’s Him we want. THAT’s what you don’t want to miss, loved ones. If we miss our calling, if we don’t achieve our goals and dreams, if we never find our passion, we can still live an abundant life in Christ if we don’t miss Him.

Live like you have forever, my friends, because if we follow Jesus, we do.

Whatever you do, Don't Miss This One Thing https://t.co/s3ydLhwUKO #leadershipdevelopment #Jesus

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) October 16, 2019

High Fashion Faith

I always have the wrong clothes.

Do you know what I mean? Other people seem to dress with ease. They have the right apparel for summer at the first bud on a tree and they seamlessly slip into cardigans as the first orange leaf falls to the ground.

Their clothes match. They fit properly. These are people who must wear stain remover as body lotion and look like they splurged on the “dashboard steam press” option for their car. Don’t even get me started on their shoes.

I’m not an adventurous dresser and have no desire to call attention to myself but it’s probably unnatural for one’s closet to have only three color selections – navy blue, khaki and black – unless one has taken holy orders. It’s bad enough living fashion-impaired but then my daughter introduced me to the old Learning Channel show called “What Not to Wear.” Now I have a whole new fear that my friends are secretly filming me from behind and planning an intervention complete with a 360 mirror.

Of course, the original “What Not to Wear” was hosted by the Apostle Paul and originally aired in Colossae – an ancient commercial center on the Mediterranean Sea in what is now Turkey. Paul was way ahead of his time.

In the third chapter of his letter to the Colossians, Paul spells out “the rules” for the well-dressed Christian. Step one with Paul is the same one Stacey and Clinton have for their victims – I mean, volunteers. Get rid of the clothes that are not appropriate.

Paul says to rid ourselves of things like anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language, and lies. Also, always out of season for believers are sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed and idolatry. These are some of Paul’s “fashion don’ts” for those who say we follow Christ. They can’t be recycled, redeemed or stuffed into the back of our closets. The only answer is to rid ourselves of them completely.

What IS in fashion for the Christ-follower every season? Paul says “as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other, and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Yes, that’s right, love is the new black.

I think it’s amusing that the producers of “What Not to Wear” also stole another idea from the Bible. They award their participants all the money they need to buy a new wardrobe.

Many of us wear what is out of fashion because it’s cheap and easy to acquire. Quality clothing is usually so high-priced as to be out of our reach. So it is with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and love.

Oh, sometimes we find knock-offs. On our own, we manufacture cheap facsimiles or stumble onto copies that fall off a truck and that may fool some of the public some of the time but, well, you know.

The good news is that God is also willing to foot the bill for our new duds. He knew we would never afford proper attire on our own so He paid for it all for us. Through Him, we can afford haute couture for the soul.

Why so many of us insist on clutching our rags, I’ll never know. The 360 mirror of God’s Word is the truest view and the grace of Christ always floods us with the perfect light.

What are you waiting for? Jesus has already sprung for new duds for us all.

What the well-dressed Christian is wearing – High Fashion Faith https://t.co/iynorRXS5a #faith #fashion #Jesus

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) October 9, 2019

Why Bother Having Hard Conversations?

It’s been about six months now that my latest book, The Art of Hard Conversations: Biblical Tools for the Tough Talks that Matter has been released and God is using it to release many believers to share their faith, speak truth into hard situations, and be present for others facing tough times. My prayer is that readers like you will be as convinced as I am that we are called to speak the truth in love and will help spread the word about the tools in this book.

Below is an excerpt from The Art of Hard Conversations that you can share with people on your email list, your pastoral staff, small group leader, or others so they have a better feel for the style of the book and the motivation behind making it available. It’s been a powerful time for me these past months to provide numerous churches with Hard Conversation workshops designed to motivate and equip them for the kingdom work we’re all about!

 

Like most things in life, conversations that present the greatest challenge also provide the biggest reward. The keys to transformation, unification, and authentic breakthroughs are usually found on the other side of hard conversations.

If you pay attention to the way God works, you won’t be surprised when I suggest most soul-shaping, life-altering discussions will happen not before international audiences or from televised pulpits but in kitchens, cubicles, and foyers and on front porches. Much like shepherds locating the King of Kings in a smelly stable, seemingly inconsequential settings can provide the backdrop for exchanges that convert coffee shop booths into outposts of glory.

Hard conversations are hard because they matter. You may be the only one who can make this happen for the people (or person) you had in mind when you opened this book. They don’t realize it, but on some level, they’re depending on you to get this right. Whether you’re a hesitant conversationalist or an enthusiastic but blundering one, the tools here will equip you for rapid and lasting improvement when connecting with others using the common vehicle of conversation. Like other ordinary things—bread, water, wine—conversation is elevated to new heights and deeper meanings at the touch of our Lord.

You’re not alone. We all look for help on this topic. When subjects are important, we can let their magnitude either paralyze us into avoidance or push us into premature, often clumsy efforts. Like our Father God, we seek to communicate. Often, the ideas we want to convey have eternal ramifications. But when we do try to speak on weighty topics, discuss deeply personal issues, or explain our perspective to someone who differs, it can be challenging to get out of our own way. We want our words to flow unimpeded, but too often, they crash, causing conversational traffic jams. Our intent gets lost in the clamor of verbal horns honking and emotional sirens blaring.

While hard conversations are difficult, they’re also inevitable, necessary, and often, biblically imperative. Speaking tough truths and comforting people through trials are expected undertakings for Jesus followers. But too often, we either fumble or flee. And there is no scientific formula to successful hard conversations. Because of this, I believe the subject merits an entire book.

Barriers arise around tough talks because our enemy knows they’re a spiritual front line. After decades of study and practice, I’ve come to view hard conversations as an art—usually a language art, often a healing art, sometimes a performing art, and occasionally a martial art.

They are obviously a language art because they involve words. A healing art, because through them, we open doors for God to heal hearts, minds, souls, and relationships—often in ways we cannot imagine. They are like a performing art because there’s significant commitment and practice required (sometimes for years) involving flubs and follies, to produce a work of beauty and awe. And there are others behind the scenes (coaching, praying, and so forth) contributing to any success.

Hard conversations are like a martial art. They are key instruments of deepening relationships, resolving conflicts, encouraging spiritual growth, and spreading the gospel, and the evil one would rather we avoid them in fear instead of facing them in faith. Barriers arise around tough talks because our enemy knows they’re a spiritual front line. Countless people are damaged by situations or conditions that might have been avoided if someone had been willing to have a hard conversation early on.

I believe hard conversations are also a sacred art, a calling by Christ on our lives, a kingdom-building work He compels us and equips us to do. Speaking truth is one way we invoke Jesus in our everyday and represent Him even in common moments.

Like me, you want to follow Jesus, even into hard conversations. Your love for God and for others is prodding you to release your hold on the comfort of silence or relinquish the habit of saying too much too fast. You want your words to make a difference, but you’re worried you don’t have what it takes. You do. I wrote this book with just you in mind.

I’ve designed it for readers who want to have effective, fruitful conversations, even when that’s hard. We’ll discuss spiritual principles and specific strategies anyone can employ to improve challenging conversations. I’ll share some of my biggest failures and you can learn from what I’ve done wrong, as well as what I’ve learned to do right.

As with any art, one may initially learn about it through reading or hearing, but at some point, we must interact with and practice the skills ourselves. I strongly urge you to employ the tools in the ARTwork exercises following each lesson. There are three to five lessons within each unit, fewer lessons when there are more skills to practice. We change best in small bites, so Answering a thought question, Reading relevant Scripture, and Trying a new conversational tool (hence ARTwork) will serve you in improving your ability to talk about hard things. You’ll find I’ve included many examples and stories, from both biblical passages and modern-life situations. In some, you’ll identify with the initiator of the chat. In others, you’ll relate to the participant. There’s something to learn from each. This isn’t a book about good guys and bad guys, “goofuses and gallants.” It’s about complex, faulted, hopeful humans trying to connect through conversations, even when it’s hard, over subjects that matter.

We’ll cover the personalities and styles we bring to conversations. I’ll explain some of the internal walls we must either dismantle, descend, or dismiss for more productive exchanges. I’ll provide a six-question soul preparation that will better equip you to initiate talks. We’ll cover the heart-work we must do to prepare and the hard work of navigating conversations with loved ones about trials, with strangers about salvation, and with friends about faith. These skills will serve us whether we initiate the talks, or they are thrust upon us.

Additionally, you’ll benefit from employing the assignments, Bible readings, and tips I’ve included at the end of each unit. These little “Heart of the Art Practice” sections afford you even more opportunity to grow in your new skills.

We follow a God who calls us into relationship. We’re to demonstrate biblical living. That means obedience and action, but it also means that sometimes we must open our mouths and let words come out. We want those words to reach their mark.

Studying the Scriptures referenced in this book, practicing the strategies, and enlisting the ongoing support of other mature believers will set you on the road of working alongside Jesus in this ministry of hard conversations.

It won’t happen overnight. Every sacred art takes time, practice, and the work of the Holy Spirit. We won’t perfect it until we’re all home, but we can certainly make an adventure of trying.

The Art of Hard Conversations recently won The Golden Scroll Award from AWSA for Christian women communicators and others have said wonderful things about it in interviews – Click HERE to listen to a few – but that’s not my dream for this book. My dream is that God uses it to free everyday Jesus-followers to courageously and lovingly speak truth into a world relentless assaulted by deception. If you’re ready for this adventure, this book will equip you and motivate you to speak the words you’ve longed to speak. The time is now.

Why bother having hard conversations? https://t.co/N5fWRFekxv #leadershipdevelopment #communications

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) October 2, 2019

When Freeze Tag Takes a Dangerous Turn

When you were a child outside with friends on a late summer evening, did you ever play freeze tag?

That’s the game of tag where the one child who is “it” tags others who then are frozen in place until another player tags to “unfreeze” them.

Christians these days are engaging in a dangerous version of freeze tag and it’s time we stopped before we usher in a spiritual ice age (can’t you already feel the chill?).

Freeze tag has never been easier.

Today’s technology can be a gift to Christians globally – serving as a channel to access sound biblical teaching, carrying the gospel beyond borders, and allowing deeper fellowship between believers across cultures and miles. That happens when our hearts reflect the heart of Christ and we translate that through the keyboard.

There’s a downside, though, because we live on an outpost of glory and aren’t home yet. When we nurture un-Christlike attitudes, thoughts, and messages, technology can magnify and accelerate the transmission of those sinful shards of the Fall far and wide – like a viral bacterium.

Fear is a naturally occurring emotion that, left unchecked, can be weaponized by dark forces and utilized to paralyze large segments of the Body of Christ like a spiritual nerve agent. We deploy it every time we post or tweet or update our status with frightening rumors and false prophetic pronouncements untethered from biblical moorings.

We cannot be fearmongers with one breath and faithful followers with another without consequence. Fear is a spiritual predator with almost no remedy. When we spread it irresponsibly, we paralyze or freeze fellow Christians who then stiffen – immobilized – from kingdom work.

It’s not that there’s nothing to fear. We live under repeated tsunamis roaring toward us still from the Fall. Daily, we hurtle closer to the times prophesied long ago that promise to be terrible and without mercy.

Of course, there is much to fear. We reside in the great battle for souls and we are deployed for battle.

Still, God commands us not to fear. Repeatedly. As if He really means it. And if He commands us not to fear, do you imagine He approves of us inspiring fear in others?

Gideon lived in fearful times and God called him to be a mighty warrior against a fierce enemy. You’d think God would provide Gideon with a vast army and the finest artillery. Instead, God works to reduce Gideon’s army so that Israel could never boast that they’d saved themselves.

How did He determine the cut? God told Gideon to send home all the troops where were afraid.

“The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained.” Judges 7:2-3

Did these Israelites have something to fear? Yes, of course! They faced a ruthless enemy! Do you imagine the 10,000 who stayed didn’t size up the threat? Didn’t understand what could happen? They were experienced warriors – they knew.

But, this lot had their fears in order. Their fear of God ranked higher than their fear of humans and when our fears are in order, it can look a lot like courage.

We live in fearful times and if we don’t see the dangers, we’re just not paying attention. But if our fears are in order, if we fear God more than we fear humans, this frees us to rise to the battle rather than drown beneath its waves.

Of course, we should warn one another of rising persecution, of consequences of standing for truth, and of threats to the Body of Christ, but always these warnings should conclude with a redemptive hope in Christ who is with us and never leaves us.

In this way, we can be the free runners in the game of freeze tag who elude the one who is “it.” A simple encounter with us – just a touch – should melt fear and release our brothers and sisters to be about the work of the kingdom with confidence and Christ-centered courage.

Have you been playing a dangerous version of freeze tag? Repent of your fearmongering and ask Jesus to show you how to speak to the reality of the times with an infusion of Christ-focused encouragement and eternity-minded courage over all inferior fears.

After all, “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.” Hebrews 10:39 ESV

Tag – you’re unfrozen – now, get moving!

When Freeze Tag Takes a Dangerous Turn https://t.co/OQ0Ed7gVey #leadershipdevelopment #Jesus

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) September 25, 2019